08/21/2001: Daily Press Briefing Excerpts

EXCERPTS FROM PRESS BRIEFING RELATING TO THE MIDDLE EAST
Phillip T. Reeker, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
August 21, 2001

QUESTION: Moving on to the Middle East. A question concerning upcoming possible talks that will be sponsored by Germany. It was announced this morning that Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres may meet next week in Berlin. Now, they are not quite certain whether those talks will be held in Germany, but from Sunday in the news reports, it appeared that Shimon Peres, acting as Foreign Minister of Israel, as a member of the Labor Party, is acting more in a dovish capacity as opposed to a hawkish capacity.

What is the State Department's reaction to those talks, and will you be taking part in any shape or form?

MR. REEKER: As we have said many times before, we support direct contacts between the parties and will support both sides in any efforts they want to make as much as possible. We have tried to facilitate security discussions before. We have talked about that at length. We have put into place structures under the basis of the Tenet work plan to facilitate that. The systems and methodologies that work well for the parties are what they need to develop, and we will support that.

And so I don't have anything to announce for you. That would be for the parties, obviously. We have seen various reports. The Germans, of course, are trusted friends and close NATO allies, and we welcome their constructive efforts with the parties, as we have done before.

In fact, Secretary of State Powell was on the phone just moments ago with Foreign Minister Fischer. As we do always in these situations, we share information. The European Union and individual members like Germany or Spain or the Norwegians, the Russians, have all been important partners in pursuing the peace process, as well as countries like Egypt and Jordan in the region. So we welcome that. And if the two parties can find a way to move forward and have the type of contacts to get the violence down so that we can move forward in the Mitchell Committee recommendations, we certainly would applaud them.

QUESTION: Any more details on that phone call?

MR. REEKER: I can't. It was ongoing as I was coming out.

QUESTION: But does the US -- you're quite clear on the US position. Is there any question, then, that the US endorses -- it came as a surprise, apparently, to Mr. Fischer, but I guess it has sunk in by now that there is the possibility of talks in Berlin. The US endorses the holding of talks between Israel and the Palestinians in Berlin, right?

MR. REEKER: We support direct contacts between the parties. I just don't have any specific answers on Berlin or anything else at this point. What the parties can do together, as I said, to establish specific methodology or a system for dealing with the issues they have to deal with together, we certainly support.

QUESTION: Well, then let me -- I hear you. A related question is: Is it correct, then, that the US feels it has no monopoly on mediation efforts? It used to be said only the US. Mr. Fischer runs a close second, I might say, but only the US is trusted by both sides and therefore it's ideally suited to be the interlocutor. Germany could be the interlocutor, at least for now?

MR. REEKER: Why don't I go back to what I just said, Barry, and that was that the Germans, in this case, since that was raised and since Foreign Minister Fischer is there in the region and since the Secretary has been speaking with him -- they're trusted friends, close allies, and we welcome their constructive efforts, just as we welcome the constructive efforts of the European Union and individual member-states like Germany, countries like Norway, Russia. We've discussed that from here many times. All the contributions of the international community.

Everyone in the international community has supported the Mitchell Committee Report and its recommendations, as have the two parties. And so as we have been saying now for some time, we think the parties need to take these steps necessary to work the security track, to get the violence down, so that they can move into Mitchell, which establishes a path forward. It gives them a road map to move away from the path of despair and destruction that they have been on.

QUESTION: The Secretary is on vacation; is that right?

MR. REEKER: Yes.

QUESTION: Can I ask two or three questions about this? One, prior to Foreign Minister Fischer going out there, I believe you mentioned that Secretary Powell had spoken with him as well. Is this kind of a bringing together of the two sides on German soil? Was that discussed in that conversation?

And if you could -- I realize you don't have details of the conversation, but if you could find out later on if this conversation between the Secretary and Foreign Minister Fischer happened after this second meeting between Fischer and Chairman Arafat.

MR. REEKER: The conversation with the Secretary and Foreign Minister Fischer was going on minutes ago. I don't know the schedule of Foreign Minister Fischer's meetings with Chairman Arafat, so I would let you check the wires as to how that proceeded.

QUESTION: Yeah, but, Phil, we are the wires here.

MR. REEKER: Right.

QUESTION: We don't know if it was -- there were two meetings. There was one meeting with Foreign Minister Fischer and Chairman Arafat this morning? There was a break, and then there was an unexpected second meeting between the two of them.

MR. REEKER: So if they had that meeting, and then at a little after one o'clock the call began with the Secretary, that's as much information as I can give you. Okay?

In terms of earlier calls, I think we did talk about last week that the Secretary had spoken with German Foreign Minister Fischer on the 14th. He speaks with him quite regularly, as a close ally and colleague. I don't have details of those calls to share with you in terms of anything that was discussed in particular, except our joint goal, as with others in the international community, to do whatever we can to help move the process forward.

QUESTION: Right. Is it fair to say that the United States is encouraging other people, like the Germans, to take a more active role?

MR. REEKER: I think what I said, yes, was clear, what the President said last week also, said that everybody in the international community needs to promote this idea, needs to carry the message to the parties. And that is what we have done publicly. It is what we have done privately. And I think it is what you are seeing other countries are doing as well. The international community is quite united in its agreement that the Mitchell Committee recommendations provide the way forward.

QUESTION: This does raise an inevitable question. If it is possible to persuade the two parties to meet, and if you welcome the Germans' apparent success in persuading them to meet, why doesn't the United States, or why hasn't the United States, done the same, given that it has even greater weight with both parties than Germany?

MR. REEKER: We have continued, Jonathan, to facilitate meetings at the security level, to offer our assistance, to support both sides as much as possible in whatever contacts they can work out. Whatever system -- or as I said, methodology -- that works for the two sides, we will support.

So we continue to stand ready to do this. We continue to have regular contacts with both sides. And that is where we will continue. Our senior officials, as we have discussed, both here in Washington and in the field, maintain daily contacts with both sides, and our message has been very much consistent in saying that the violence has got to get down, we are troubled by the violence that occurs every day, and that both sides need to take the steps necessary to get that violence down so that they can then move into the steps outlined by Mitchell.

QUESTION: Phil, if you had this offer to facilitate these meetings, a standing offer that you have repeated here every day, and now the two sides apparently are taking the Germans up on their new offer, isn't that a rebuff for the US at this point?

MR. REEKER: No, I think we all continue to work on this and do whatever we can to help the two sides come to arrangements that they can make. They have had meetings under the security rubric, under the Tenet work plan. We continue to encourage whatever contacts they can have between the two parties that will help move the situation along. That is what is necessary.

It is up to the parties to take these steps. We will continue to be very much involved and engaged. We welcome the constructive efforts of others in the international community so that we can move forward in the plans that have been set forward to move beyond this.

QUESTION: Can we change the subject?

QUESTION: No, hold on. Can I ask one more thing? Just if you can't answer it, just say you can't answer it. But doesn't -- surely this makes it appear that it takes the personal involvement of someone at the foreign minister level to bring the two sides together. Does it not?

MR. REEKER: That's up to the two sides to decide. And at our foreign minister level we have had a lot of personal involvement from the Secretary of State, who has told you himself about the involvement he has had. Some of you have traveled with him when he has visited the region and had discussions and had meetings directly with the leaders on both sides, Palestinians and Israelis; meetings he has had with other leaders in the region, and with others in the international community; the phone calls that we described for you that he has made. And that is the type of activity that the Secretary will continue to have, that other senior officials will continue to have, because we are very much engaged in this process.

QUESTION: Has he had any other phone calls in the last few days with leaders in the region?

MR. REEKER: He has spoken to the Italian Foreign Minister yesterday, and I think we already had talked about his speaking with Israeli Foreign Minister Peres on the 18th, which was Saturday

QUESTION: The Italian on the Middle East?

MR. REEKER: I don't know the full scale of the things they talked about.

QUESTION: Well, was it one of the things they talked about?

MR. REEKER: Among other things. I don't know, Barry. I don't have a readout of the call.

QUESTION: All right, so it wasn't necessarily related to what is going on.

MR. REEKER: No, I was just asked about phone calls.

QUESTION: Is there anything more to say on the two Americans that were hurt yesterday? I understand they have both been released from the hospital by now.

MR. REEKER: I don't believe I have really much more to say, obviously because we have no Privacy Act waivers allowing us to discuss their situations with the media, other than to say that those two Americans, who had been injured by gunfire over the weekend, are both recovering well.

Elise, who wants to change the subject. Unanimity? We work on consensus here. It's kind of like NATO.

QUESTION: Ambassador Walker -- former Ambassador Walker -- believes, according to the op ed at least in The Post, that Israel at least has a kind of an understanding that the Administration is sympathetic, or understanding of its targeting terrorists or suspected terrorists for assassination.

Is there any reason you know of -- we're asking the same question at the White House -- is there any reason you know of that Israel would have such an understanding?

MR. REEKER: No, Barry, and as you know, we have long made very clear -- we have made known the US Government's opposition to the policy and practice of targeted killings, and we are going to continue to urge the Israelis to desist from this policy.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: But you do understand why the question was asked? There was --

MR. REEKER: Sure. I didn't quibble with the question.

QUESTION: There was an article in the paper.

MR. REEKER: Former officials are free to write whatever they want.

QUESTION: I just wanted to make sure that Phil understood because there are other people that are raising this -- other people, people who have vast experience in this region -- who, even under this Administration, up until a couple months ago, who appear to be a little confused.

MR. REEKER: Well, then let me be very clear.

QUESTION: No, you were. I just wanted to make sure you were not denigrating Barry's question.

QUESTION: No, he wasn't. It was a clear answer.

MR. REEKER: Thank you, Barry. Thank you, Matt.

QUESTION: The one before that, I don't know.

(Laughter.)

MR. REEKER: I keep saying we ought to be able to switch to the videotape and replay. Okay, now Elise wants to change the subject, and we are going to allow that to happen.